 • Known as the first family of gospel, The Staple Singers were established as international hitmakers thanks to classics like “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There,” recorded for Stax Records in the ‘70s. After recording for Warner Brothers and 20TH Century Records, the group (Pops, Mavis, Yvonne and Cleotha) signed with Private I Records and released TURNING POINT, their debut album for the label in 1984.
• All but two tracks were produced by Pervis Staples and Stax producer/engineer Henry Bush and featured a number of key Memphis musicians. Gary Goetzman and Mike Piccirillo (who had worked with various artists including Thelma Houston and Smokey Robinson) were responsible for two cuts, “This Is Your Night” and “Slippery People,” a song composed by guitarist David Byrne, lead singer of Talking Heads who had recorded the song a year earlier. Byrne was one of the musicians on the Staples’ recording session of the song.
• “Slippery People” became the group’s first charted single in seven years, reaching No. 4 on the U.S. dance music charts and spurring TURNING POINT to No. 43 on the R&B Albums chart.
• TURNING POINT has been out of print on CD for two decades; this expanded edition includes five bonus tracks including the non-album “B” side, “Can You Hang.”
• With notes by renowned US writers Kevin Goins and Darnell Meyers=Johnson
About the Writer
David Nathan is the founder and CEO of SoulMusic.com and began his writing career in 1965; beginning in 1967, he was a regular contributor to Blues & Soul magazine in London before relocating to the U.S. in 1975 where he served as U.S. editor for the publication for several decades and began being known as 'The British Ambassador Of Soul.' From 1988 to 2004, he wrote prolifically for Billboard, has penned bios, produced and written liner notes for box sets and reissue CDs for over a thousand projects. He returned to London in 2009 where he has helped create SoulMusic.com Records as a leading reissue label.
|
|
|
